"Fortunately, the baby probably wouldn't have been able to feel pain in the way we experience it. Its perception is broken up across several areas which would be immature at this stage. The baby would react to pain but those responses are mostly reflexive. The emotional response to pain (the "ow this hurts and now I feel bad" part) would be absent since the higher cortical areas responsible are underdeveloped. It doesn't really matter, but at least the baby didn't suffer.
Unfortunately, We don't know for sure. Assuming the baby did not fear or feel the instruments is totally beyond our knowledge. It is only supposition.
In any event it is enough to make a grown man cry even to think about it.
Well, it's a little beyond supposition. I can get into the nitty-gritty (got a test on this very subject tomorrow) but it's not exciting. Fear and suffering (which is an emotional response to pain) are higher cortical functions that requires a complex circuit for registration. Even then, connections between the cortex and peripheral senses don't develop until ~30 weeks.
As an aside, there appears to be a shortage of docs willing to do abortions in the US. We had a lecturer lament at the difficulty of finding a doctor willing to perform abortions in my area. She was discussing them in the context of protecting the mother, but it's still applicable.
Droht, you're talking about conditions that are politely termed "incompatible with life." In these cases, viability is never achieved so abortions are allowed at any stage. Often they are classified as protective of the mother since there are some processes that go astray increasing the possibility of negative outcomes. On the same token, the list of inviable conditions is shrinking so these types of decisions are actually legally left to a judgement call by the doctor.
